Parental Attachment Style: Examination of Links with Parent Secure Base Provision and Adolescent Secure Base Use

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Attachment & Human Development on June 5, 2014, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2014.921718 .The secure base construct represents one of attachment theory’s most important contributions to our understanding of parent–child relationships and child development. The present study represents the first examination of how parents’ self-reported attachment styles relate to parental secure base provision and adolescent (mean age = 16.6 years, SE = .59) secure base use during an observed parent–adolescent interaction. Further, the present study is the first to examine how fathers’, as well as mothers’, attachment styles relate to observed behavior in a parent–child interaction. At the bivariate level, maternal avoidance, but not anxiety, was negatively associated with observed adolescent secure base use. In addition, path analysis revealed that maternal avoidance was indirectly related to less adolescent secure base use through mothers’ self-reported hostile behavior toward their adolescents and through adolescents’ less positive perceptions of their mothers. Further, paternal anxiety, but not avoidance, was indirectly related to less adolescent secure base use through fathers’ self-reported hostile behavior toward their adolescents. No significant findings emerged in relation to parental secure base provision. We discuss these results in the context of attachment theory and suggest directions for future research.https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2014.92171

Maternal Perception of Newborns Predicts Attachment Organization in Middle Adulthood

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Attachment & Human Development on March 3, 2010, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616730903282464 .The goal of the present study was to examine the predictive relation between an individual's newborn status, as rated with the Neonatal Perception Inventories (NPI), and his or her adult attachment organization, as rated with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). All participants (N = 26) had been healthy, full-term, singleton, first-born infants whose mothers were recruited during the immediate postpartum hospital stay. The NPI were collected during home visits made when infants were 4–6 weeks old. The AAI was administered 30 to 40 years later. The study hypothesis was that adult participants whose mothers had held negative perceptions of them as newborns would be more likely to be classified as insecure on the AAI than participants whose mothers had held positive perceptions of them. The study hypothesis was supported. A 2 (positive NPI vs. negative NPI) × 2 (secure AAI vs. insecure AAI) contingency table analysis indicated a highly significant connection between newborn NPI risk status and adult AAI classification, Fisher's exact test, p < .003, odds ratio = 18. As expected, negative maternal perception at 1-month old was associated with subsequent insecure adult attachment status.https://doi.org/10.1080/1461673090328246

Newborn Irritability Moderates the Association Between Infant Attachment Security and Toddler Exploration and Sociability

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Stupica, B., Sherman, L.J. and Cassidy, J. (2011), Newborn Irritability Moderates the Association Between Infant Attachment Security and Toddler Exploration and Sociability. Child Development, 82: 1381-1389., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01638.x . This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.This longitudinal investigation of 84 infants examined whether the effect of 12-month attachment on 18- and 24-month exploration and sociability with unfamiliar adults varied as a function of newborn irritability. As expected, results revealed an interaction between attachment (secure vs. insecure) and irritability (highly irritable vs. moderately irritable) in predicting both exploration and sociability with unfamiliar adults. For exploration, results supported a dual-risk model; that is, toddlers who had been both highly irritable and insecurely attached were less exploratory than other toddlers. For sociability, results supported the differential-susceptibility hypothesis; that is, highly irritable infants, compared to moderately irritable infants, were both less sociable as toddlers when they had been insecurely attached and more sociable when they had been securely attached.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01638.

Working toward anti-racist perspectives in attachment theory, research, and practice

Recent social movements have illuminated systemic inequities in U.S. society, including within the social sciences. Thus, it is essential that attachment researchers and practitioners engage in reflection and action to work toward anti-racist perspectives in the field. Our aims in this paper are (1) to share the generative conversations and debates that arose in preparing the Special Issue of Attachment & Human Development, “Attachment Perspectives on Race, Prejudice, and Anti-Racism”; and (2) to propose key considerations for working toward anti-racist perspectives in the field of attachment. We provide recommendations for enriching attachment theory (e.g. considering relations between caregivers’ racial-ethnic socialization and secure base provision), research (e.g. increasing the representation of African American researchers and participants), and practice (e.g. advocating for policies that reduce systemic inequities in family supports). Finally, we suggest two relevant models integrating attachment theory with perspectives from Black youth development as guides for future research.https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2021.197693

Parents’ Self-Reported Attachment Styles: A Review of Links with Parenting Behaviors, Emotions, and Cognitions

For decades, attachment scholars have been investigating how parents’ adult attachment orientations relate to the ways in which they parent. Traditionally, this research has been conducted by developmental and clinical psychologists who typically employ the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) to measure adult attachment. However, dating back to the mid-1990s, social and personality psychologists have been investigating how self-reported adult attachment styles relate to various facets of parenting. The literature on self-reported attachment and parenting has received less attention than AAI research on the same topic and, to date, there is no comprehensive review of this literature. In this article, we review more than 60 studies of the links between self-reported attachment styles and parenting, integrate the findings to reach general conclusions, discuss unresolved questions, and suggest future directions. Finally, we discuss the potential benefits to the study of parenting of collaborations among researchers from the developmental and social attachment research traditions.https://doi.org/10.1177/108886831454185

Tipping Points in Adolescent Adjustment: Predicting Social Functioning from Adolescents’ Conflict with Parents and Friends

©American Psychological Association, 2012. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. The final article is available, upon publication, at: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029868Despite widespread interest in examining the role of conflict for adolescent development, researchers only rarely have examined adolescents' experiences of conflict across relationships. The present study examined how adolescents' experiences of conflict with parents and friends were linked to their social functioning. Adolescents (n = 189) and their mothers and fathers participated in semistructured discussions about areas of parent-adolescent conflict in the laboratory. In addition, adolescents reported about conflict in their best friendships, and peers reported about adolescents' social acceptance and behavior in social settings. Parent–adolescent conflict was associated with peer-reported aggression and delinquency, and friendship conflict was associated with delinquency and prosocial behavior. In addition, significant Parent–Adolescent Conflict × Friend–Adolescent Conflict interactions revealed that parent–adolescent conflict was associated with poor social functioning only when conflict with best friends was also high. The findings suggest that consideration of conflict across relationships may yield insight into the specific contexts in which conflict is associated with negative outcomes for adolescents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)https://doi.org/10.1037/a002986

Contributions of attachment theory and research: A framework for future research, translation, and policy

Attachment theory has been generating creative and impactful research for almost half a century. In this article we focus on the documented antecedents and consequences of individual differences in infant attachment patterns, suggesting topics for further theoretical clarification, research, clinical interventions, and policy applications. We pay particular attention to the concept of cognitive “working models” and to neural and physiological mechanisms through which early attachment experiences contribute to later functioning. We consider adult caregiving behavior that predicts infant attachment patterns, and the still-mysterious “transmission gap” between parental Adult Attachment Interview classifications and infant Strange Situation classifications. We also review connections between attachment and (a) child psychopathology; (b) neurobiology; (c) health and immune function; (d) empathy, compassion, and altruism; (e) school readiness; and (f) culture. We conclude with clinical–translational and public policy applications of attachment research that could reduce the occurrence and maintenance of insecure attachment during infancy and beyond. Our goal is to inspire researchers to continue advancing the field by finding new ways to tackle long-standing questions and by generating and testing novel hypotheses.https://doi.org/10.1017/S095457941300069

Reporter Discrepancies Among Parents, Adolescents, and Peers: Adolescent Attachment and Informant Depressive Symptoms as Explanatory Factors

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Ehrlich, K.B., Cassidy, J. and Dykas, M.J. (2011), Reporter Discrepancies Among Parents, Adolescents, and Peers: Adolescent Attachment and Informant Depressive Symptoms as Explanatory Factors. Child Development, 82: 999-1012., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01530.x . This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.The issue of informant discrepancies about child and adolescent functioning is an important concern for clinicians, developmental psychologists, and others who must consider ways of handling discrepant reports of information, but reasons for discrepancies in reports have been poorly understood. Adolescent attachment and informant depressive symptoms were examined as 2 explanations for absolute and directional discrepancies about adolescent symptoms, relationships, and social behavior in a sample of 189 eleventh-grade students (mean age = 16.5 years). Adolescent attachment predicted absolute discrepancies, with greater attachment coherence associated with fewer discrepancies in reports of adolescent depressive symptoms, parent–adolescent conflict, and adolescent externalizing behavior. Parents’ but not adolescents’ depressive symptoms sometimes predicted absolute discrepancies. Mothers’ depressive symptoms and adolescent attachment predicted the direction of discrepancies for mother–peer reports only.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01530.

The Generalization of Attachment Representations to New Social Situations: Predicting Behavior during Initial Interactions with Strangers

©American Psychological Association, 2008. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. The final article is available, upon publication, at: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012635 .The idea that attachment representations are generalized to new social situations and guide behavior with unfamiliar others is central to attachment theory. However, research regarding this important theoretical postulate has been lacking in adolescence and adulthood, as most research has focused on establishing the influence of attachment representations on close relationship dynamics. Thus, the goal of this investigation was to examine the extent to which attachment representations are predictive of adolescents' initial behavior when meeting and interacting with new peers. High school adolescents (N = 135) participated with unfamiliar peers from another school in 2 social support interactions that were videotaped and coded by independent observers. Results indicated that attachment representations (assessed through interview and self-report measures) were predictive of behaviors exhibited during the discussions. Theoretical implications of the results and contributions to the existing literature are discussed. (APA PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)https://doi.org/10.1037/a001263

Empathic responding and hippocampal volume in young children

©American Psychological Association, 2019. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. The final article is available, upon publication, at: https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000684Empathic responding—the capacity to understand, resonate with, and respond sensitively to others’ emotional experiences—is a complex human faculty that calls upon multiple social, emotional, and cognitive capacities and their underlying neural systems. Emerging evidence in adults has suggested that the hippocampus and its associated network may play an important role in empathic responding, possibly via processes such as memory of emotional events, but the contribution of this structure in early childhood is unknown. We examined concurrent associations between empathic responding and hippocampal volume in a sample of 78 children (ages 4–8 years). Larger bilateral hippocampal volume (adjusted for intracranial volume) predicted greater observed empathic responses toward an experimenter in distress, but only for boys. The association was not driven by a specific subregion of the hippocampus (head, body, tail), nor did it vary with age. Empathic responding was not significantly related to amygdala volume, suggesting specificity of relations with the hippocampus. Results support the proposal that hippocampal structure contributes to individual differences in children’s empathic responding, consistent with research in adults. Findings shed light on an understudied structure in the complex neural systems supporting empathic responding and raise new questions regarding sex differences in the neurodevelopment of empathy in early childhood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)https://doi.org/10.1037/dev000068